Spotted!
by hebrewhernia
Summary: A friend spots Marco at the 7-11 in book 49. But to her, he's supposed to be dead! Why is he there? She searches for answers.... finally finished, yeah yeah, read, review, you know the drill. Challenge inside.
1. Prologue

Spotted!  
  
  
My name is Faith. I'm your average 15-year-old. A giggly teenage blond with a high GPA on my last report card, good looks, and a nonexistent love life. See, I've had a crush on the same guy for about 2 1/2 years, since 7th grade,My first year of middle school. He died about 2 months ago, and I was devastated. I still am. I remember the first time I saw him...  
  
Entering the middle school, nervous but fairly confident, I saw him. Cute, about my height- despite the fact that he was in 8th grade... Marco. I noticed him glance at me, and even give me a second glance. At which point I fell in love with Marco... I became sort-of friends with him, enough to sit with him at lunch when he and his best friend, Jake, had a fight, or when he just wanted to. **sigh**   
  
I lived halfway between Rachel and Jake. Rachel was Jake's cousin. I think Marco sort of had a crush on her, but she didn't like him. He came to me for advice with that. I was sort of Rachel's friend, sometimes we would hang out.  
I was in the 7-11. My mom sent me to get some cereal, milk, and s'mores ingredients for the camping trip we were going on over the weekend, so I biked over from my neighborhood.  
  
I walked in, after a lady with scars on her face and a huge guide dog with a rigid handle. She went down one aisle, while I went down another looking for marshmallows.   
  
A couple minutes later I heard a guy's voice...it sounded familiar... saying quietly, "Yeah, Ax-man. That'll look real convincing on the surveillance tapes."  
  
A million questions and thoughts ran through my head. Who was "Ax-man"? A gang member? Was the other kid a gang member? Who was the other kid, whose voice was familiar?   
  
Then...... OMG THE VOICE WAS MARCO!!!!!! BUT HE's DEAD! APPARENTLY NOT! My brain was having a shouting match against itself!!! And my eyes were still looking for the flipping marshmallows!   
  
I found my items, paid for them, and left.   
  
  
  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
A/N: Another story. I was re-reading book 49 and I thought, "Well what if someone saw and recognized Marco?" I got the name "Faith" from the chorus of "Unknown" and I thought I could somehow tie that in. The chorus goes "...Faith makes everybody scared..." This is NOT one of those new Animorphs stories and Faith is NOT a Mary Sue ( Don't they usually have musical talent in addition to pretty and smart. As you will find out later, Faith cannot sing for sh*t and is a very bad pianist- she hates piano, but her parents made her take lessons when she was younger. She scored a 15 on the Mary Sue litmus test- borderline, but I don't consider her to be one because she is a LOW BORDERLINE) 


	2. Chapter One

I ran home as fast as I could.   
  
I raced up the stairs two at a time to my room, and hurled myself not-too- terribly-gracefully onto my bed. I hung over the edge of the bed and dug around under the bed.  
  
"AHA!" I found it! My diary, or the Notebook Of All Things Weird (In my Life) as I officially called it, or for short, "NO-wAy!". The last entry was that Marco had died. Most of the entries before that were ponderings of why I liked Marco and did he like me? After all, all's weird in love and...stuff.  
  
I dug around some more and found my special gel pen, or as it was officially called, the Pen Used for Writing About All Things Weird (In my Life), or for short, "The 'WAAT' Pen."  
  
With the WAAT Pen, I wrote in NO-wAy about seeing and hearing Marco at the 7-11. I knew it was actually him because I heard the weird kid and the other kid say his name. Also, only Marco could say something stupid-yet-funny like the,  
"Don't call the cops or Fido here gets it," I heard in the same exact voice that was Marco's. **sigh** I wrote with the WAAT pen in my incredibly-sloppy-readable-only-by-me-and-Leigh(my best friend)-writing:  
  
~~~~OMG I cannot believe what just happened. At the 7-eleven getting smores stuff, I SAW MARCO! He's supposed to be dead and all, but apparently he's not. Y'know, before he died, he had seemed really stressed, really tired, and older than a high-schooler, but only like half the time. The way he talked, he seemed like a war veteran half the time.   
  
The other half the time he was really funny, normal, like he's been since 8th grade. **sigh** But that's not the point.  
  
He was the funny self, despite the fact that he's supposed to be dead. I'd think I mistook someone else for him, but I can ALWAYS pick him out of the crowd, and I've NEVER mistaken him for someone else.   
  
I wonder what Leigh will think.~~~~  
  
Leigh is my best friend. We perfected our handwritings so that only we are able to read it. We perfected it for the WAAT pen and no-way notebook- she has one of her own, and we solve little mysteries together. Well, since we *have* practically nonexistent love lives, we have a lot of free time!!  
  
I picked up the phone in my room and dialed Lindsey's number. Busy. Okay, Lindz must be online.  
  
I thundered down the stairs to the computer room. Wonderful. My brother, Chris, who was younger than me by a year, was emailing his girlfriend, Jordan. YES, Rachel's little sister. Oy!   
  
I ran back up the stairs, grabbed my mini-backpack/purse that I took everywhere with me, shoved the notebook and pen in, and yelled,  
  
"MOM! I'm going to Leighs's house! I'll be back soon!"  
  
Leigh lived across the street and two houses towards Rachel. I fairly flew out the door, across the street, and down the street to her house where I breathlessly rung the doorbell. Leigh opened it.  
  
"Faith, what's up? Another mystery?" She asked when she saw my breathlessness and my awed, wild, starstruck eyes, for Marco may as well have been a celebrity, at least in my eyes. They knew each other, and somewhat liked each other,but just as friends and they next to never talked.   
  
See, now that I saw him, I wasn't thinking about Marco in past tense, as in he lived and died, but now in present/future tense like most other people- he lives and he will die.   
  
Leigh led the way up the stairs to her room and locked the door.   
  
"What is it?" She asked, eager, excited, and concerned all at once.   
  
As soon as I caught enough breath I said two words, "Marco. Alive." and sat on her desk chair while she sprawled on her bed, disbelieving.   
  
"He's alive?" she asked. I nodded. "How do you know?" she asked.  
  
"I saw him. At the 7-11." I said.  
  
She shook her head in disbelief.  
  
"No. He can't be. He and his father died. Mrs._____________ was devastated, remember? She still is! She can't even say 'x equals y plus 17' without remembering how much Marco hated algebra!" Lindz exclaimed.  
  
"HATES." I corrected her. "Marco hates algebra, not hat-ED." I said.  
  
"Are you SURE it wasn't someone else?" Lindz asked.   
  
"Lindz, have I ever mistaken Marco for someone else, or vice versa?" I asked.  
  
"No," she admitted with a shrug.  
  
Let me explain something: Lindz and I are nearly opposites, but enough alike that we have something in common, and enough different that we don't get on each other's nerves.   
  
Lindz tends to be the skeptic, the non-believer, but not the pessimist. She tries to see the bright side of things, but she can balance it. I, on the other hand, am a full-blown optimist. I can always see the bright side of things. I also tend to miss things in conversations, but I tend to think, in that situation, that ignorance is bliss.   
  
She has dark hair with natural reddish-brown highlights, blue eyes, and glasses, and is the perfect weight. I'm blond, with gray eyes, and I'm a little on the chubby side, but not awful. She's this total genius, and gets straight A+'s with a few regular A's. I'm an A average with the occasional B. Another thing: we both like sci-fi and mystery books.  
  
See, we're alike, but different too.   
  
She was reading the latest entry in NO-wAy. She shut it and said,   
  
"Well, Faith, we've got ourselves another mystery."  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
A/N: I know, sort of a cliffhanger, but I'm not entirely sure where to go from here. I know where I want to end up, but I'm not quite sure how to get there. Please give me some suggestions WHEN not IF you review? 


	3. Chapter Two

Leigh went digging under our bed for a blank notebook. She kept several there for school and just in case anyone would need them. Leigh was just that kind of person.  
  
She came up with a purple spiral notebook without the perforated edges, meaning that the pages didn't tear out, which was good.  
  
She opened to the first page, went to her desk and got her own WAAT pen and wrote down our questions- Why was Marco at the 7-11? Is Marco not dead after all?   
  
She said, "It's a good idea to write down all our stuff and keep all evidence in this notebook. You use your own notebook and email me if anything comes up. You said that Marco entered after you?" She paused and I nodded. "Did you see which direction he came from?" I shook my head.   
  
Leigh was a very take-charge kind of person, but I was sort of, and it was making me a little mad. It was, after all, my mystery. I had seen Marco. But I also understood that she wasn't just asking these questions to take charge. She wanted to know everything, so we had equal knowledge; she and caught little details that I missed, and vice versa, so we made a good team.   
  
"Let's just look in the general area of the 7-11, you know, just like a half-mile radius each way?" I suggested.   
  
"I'll check with my mom, you check with yours, meet back here in 10 minutes with your bike, which would be 2:00." She said. See what I mean about taking charge? I swallowed my annoyance and headed home.   
  
"Mom?" I yelled. "Leigh and I are going for a bike ride, okay?"   
  
"Okay, be back by 5!" She yelled. Excellent! I grabbed my bike, rode over to Leigh's, and waited outside a few minutes.   
  
Leigh came out and said, "I can't go until tomorrow. My mom is mad that I didn't tell her the last time I went for a bike ride. I wasn't allowed to bike ride for a week, but the week's over tomorrow."  
  
"Oh. Okay. I'll go with you tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll do some online investigating." I said.  
  
"Online investigating?" she asked incredulously.  
  
"I have his old screen name. I'm going to email him and see if I get a response. I'll also put him back on my AOL buddy list so if he logs on with his old screen name I'll IM him. If he changed his, I can do a check in the directory thing for a new screen name, but he's probably put it under a fake name if he got another one after he 'died'."  
  
"Okay, that's cool." She said. "Bye.  
  
"Bye!" I called as I biked away.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A/N: Okay, it's short, but it's a chapter. I'm experiencing a sort of writer's block confusion thing- 1) I'm writing about 3 stories at once- so I'm trying to balance time between them. Expect the next chapter in a few days. I'll also put the next chapter of Beginning part 2 up around then, and Cassie Listens to Lifehouse. 2)I know what I want to happen in this fic, sort of, but I don't know how to get there. So if it's not great, just give me some constructive critism on ways to make it better and I'll edit that in. NOW REVIEW IT!!!!!!!!!!!  



	4. Chapter 3

As I walked in the door, I called, "Mom? We're not going for that bike ride after all!"   
  
I ran into the computer room and flopped into the big black chair. I double-clicked on the AOL logo and selected my screen name. I typed my password and logged on.  
  
"You've got mail!" The computer's voice said. I checked. A forwarded message was the only thing in my mailbox. I deleted it.   
  
I went to the buddy list. I selected the "setup" button, then the "edit" button and highlited the group "boys". I added Marco's screen name, BaldwinBoy5, and saved. I hit control and g and in the little box where it said to get a member's profile, I typed BaldwinBoy5 and hit enter. No profile. Probably, his stepmother deleted his screen name.  
  
Next, I went to the member directory. I typed "Marco" in the name field and checked profiles looking for something with Marco's wit. Finally, something possible turned up. "Swingerboygorila"'s name was "Marco not as in polo" and his personal quote was "nobody gets out alive so enjoy it now". Considering Marco was dead (er, faked his death?)and possibly involved in something dangerous (that required him to fake his own death) that was something reasonable to say. I printed 2 copies of the profile and glued one into my notebook. The other one was for Leigh. The location was wrong but then again he's supposed to be dead so the location means squat.   
  
I emailed it to Leigh and told her that that was the only thing I found, then logged off and did my homework. I went to bed, anticipating what we would find out tomorrow.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
A/N: I know it sucks but deal with it. I had to kill a day because I'm going by the book, and there's a day in between when Loren goes out with Tobias as the dog and they go to the park to switch dogs, right? Yes. So I now know almost exactly what's going to happen, and no they don't become Animorphs. NOW REVIEW PLEASE! 


	5. Chapter 4

I woke up. 8:27 AM. I showered, got dressed, ate breakfast,and biked over to Leigh's house at 9:54.   
  
I rung the doorbell. As I waited, I shifted impatiently from foot to foot. FINALLY she opened the door. I was bursting with excitement. With me I had the article,a camera in case we saw him, my notebook,and my pen.  
  
"Which way should we bike today?" she asked.'  
  
"Well, since we have all day, I figured we could bike from here to the park about a half-mile from the 7-11, search the park and the surrounding area up to the 7-11, buy a sub or something for lunch, and then search closer to our houses, and be back around 5 or so." I replied.  
  
"Okay. Check with the 'rents, meet here in 5?" She asked, but I was already on my way out the door.  
****  
  
Mom said okay, so I headed to Leigh's where she was already waiting. We left.   
****  
  
We biked the first 20 minutes or so silently, each lost in our own thoughts.   
  
I thought of Marco. Maybe, somehow, if he was really alive, if my hopelessly lovesick mind wasn't playing a horrible trick on me, he could like me. Yeah, right. He could really like this mediocre, less-than-wonderful teenager, who was a year younger than him, that was me. Yeah, right.   
  
And so I thought the same things, over and over, a carousel of depressing thoughts that never stopped...and it reminded me of a song. I heard it all too frequently. My brother Chris was obsessed with Lifehouse. Since our rooms were right next to each other, I heard it through the walls because he played it so loud. "Sick Cycle Carousel" was the name...a fragment drifted through my mind, "over and over, and over again." My thoughts were all: Marco, Marco, Marco.   
  
"Faith? Are you alive in there? Hello?" Leigh was giving me a reality check. "We're at the park. Let's look!"  
  
We were biking around when I saw the lady from the 7-11, with the scars. She had the guide dog, with the big handle and harness, too. Approaching from the other side was Marco with an IDENTICAL dog on a regular leash. The dogs were exactly the same. Down to the last patch of brown fur they were totally identical.   
  
I did the only thing I could.  
  
I waited until they were fairly close. We were behind a large rock, the kind kids play King of the Mountain on, about 3 feet away from the tunnel. I took a zoom-in picture of Marco's face, then of him, then, when the dogs were close enough, I took a picture of the identical dogs. Then, a few minutes later, the lady emerged with a dog, Marco (**sigh**) emerged, and a hawk left. Only one dog. I took a picture of the hawk. I didn't use the flash for any of them,because it was sunny and they would have noticed.  
  
I crept up to the tunnel and took a picture of the empty tunnel. I put the camera in my easily-accessible pocket and hopped on my bike, and we followed Marco out of the park.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
A/N: The next part requires some imagination, because I'm following the plot in the book, and that does not say what happens to Marco. It'll be up soon. Remember, if there are no reviews, I'll abandon this. SO REVIEW! 


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: A couple of things happened since I last posted this

A/N:A couple of things happened since I last posted this. 1. I figured out HTML format! 2. I started writing In a Heartbeat fics, meaning I don't have as much time for Animorphs :-(

Thanks to Temrash 113 for that excellent review. Even though it was mostly critism, it was constructive, and right about now, that's what I need.

Sorry I haven't updated for so long. I started writing other stuff. For everyone who is into both things like me (maybe you even got into it through the actors like me) I have a Tyler/Val sappy one that does and will have Jamie/Caitie. It has 9 chapters and still isn't finished. This one will have up to and beyond 9 chapters- this segment I'm planning to write may be two, which should take us up to 9… and I have multiple chapters involving our heroine throughout the book series.Okay, I know I'm babbling, so I'll write the fic now. Let's see, to refresh our memories… they took pictures and followed Marco out of the park on bikes. Now I get to use my imagination… OOH! I KNOW! This segment will have cliffhangers maybe… mostly on account of… THE CURSE OF THE WRITERS BLOCK!!! R&R! Spotted! The next chapter…

We followed him down several streets. He kept turning, as if to avoid being followed, although he was walking normal speed. I chalked it up to paranoia on his part and kept close enough that I could see him but far enough that he wouldn't notice me. 

We were winding towards the country, out by all the farms, I noticed. The riding was quite uneventful. We had to be stealthy and quiet, and kept our eyes on him 99% of the time. The rest of the time we were checking our watches, making sure we didn't have to head home too soon. (I had to be home by 6, and Leigh had to be home at 5:30). 

After a while, it got too hard to bike, especially since Marco was still on foot. Just when we were about to give up and go home, Marco turned suddenly and went into a barn. We followed and watched from where he accidentally, or maybe carelessly, or maybe even on purpose, left a crack open in the barn door. 

He took off his shoes and as we watched, a realistic feather tattoo popped up on his skin and too-tight t-shirt, and his weird spandex shorts too, and changed into feathers. Real feathers, like from a real bird! As I watched, arms melted into wings, then his nose and mouth stretched to become a hard, curved, ripping tearing beak. Toes melted and reformed into huge bird talons, then shrank with the rest of him down to normal bird size. 

"An osprey. He's changing into an osprey," whispered an amazed Leigh, who liked to watch birds when she was really really bored. And that seemed to happen a lot.

"MARCO!" I yelled. I didn't know where the voice came from. Then I realized… it was me. I guess part of me decided that I had seen enough. 

Faith! I guess he recognized my voice, or he'd known I was following him all along, because he answered. But something was different… it wasn't spoken. It was in my head! Faith. Leigh. You will not tell anyone about this. Nothing at all. Meet me in 3 days in the park at, say 4:30. The same park I was in with the dogs and the bird. I can explain then. Until then, trust no one. You caught me at a bad time. I have very important things to do. He flapped his osprey wings and went to leave. As he flew above my head I heard, well, with my mind, but… you know what I mean Oh, and Faith? I never got to tell you but, I love you. 

I said, in a whisper, but I'd hung around with Leigh enough to know that he'd hear, "I love you too, Marco." 

* * *

Around 5:45, I finally made it home. I was met by a distraught Chris.

"It's been 3 days. 3 days! And no emails. No calls. Where is she? I haven't seen her on the streets. I haven't seen her at school. She's gone. GONE! Where is she? I have to find her. It's been 3 days. 3 days! And no e-" He was cut off from his ranting by me.

"What? Who?" I asked frantically. Panic is contagious.

"Jordan. She's missing. It's been 3 days. 3 days! And no-" he was once again interrupted by me. 

"I know. You have had no contact from her. But some weirdness has been happening with me, too, lately. I can empathize. And I'll tell you one thing. Jordan is safe. I can feel it." I told him.

As I entered the computer room to check my emails, I could still hear Chris muttering to himself, "3 days! And no emails. No calls. Where is she? I haven't seen her..." Oy!

* * *

Author's Note: It's over. This chapter at least. Yes, Team Omega, I finally updated. Temrash 113- about the Yeerks finding them and trying to silence them, that'll probably happen, I don't know "tomorrow" in their time. I won't tell you what happens other than that. Now that I have somewhat an idea, review, and expect the next chapter maybe Sunday-ish. 


	7. Chapter 6

I was a confused girl. I was a very, very confused girl. Marco changing into a bird, an osprey to be exact, and this weird feeling that somehow, everything would be okay. The three days passed, and Leigh and I were on our way to the park. 

"This is freaky." Leigh said, as we arrived. 

Thank you, Captain Obvious! I heard a familiarly sarcastic voice exclaim. Except, I didn't really hear it, I kind of felt it, but I heard it, and… oy. 

As I watched, a bird landed on the ground right in front of me and began transforming into Marco. It was not a pretty sight and I looked away, grossed out and utterly confused.

"What is going on here?" Leigh demanded. "What in the world is going on here? Are you an alien?" She asked.

He laughed. He just LAUGHED. Leigh and I were stunned. He was laughing. At us. 

"Marco, what is going on here? You obviously know a heck of a lot more than we do about whatever is going on here, so would you be so kind as to explain? We've been good little girls, not mentioning anything to anybody. We haven't even talked about it to each _other_!" Leigh exclaimed.

Marco was instantly serious. "OK." he said. "Fact: Aliens do exist. I happen to know quite a few. Fact: Earth is under attack by an alien race called Yeerks. Fact: Yeerks are parasite slugs who need hosts to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, if the host species can taste. Yes, there are species out there without the ability to taste. Fact: Yeerks want humans as hosts. There are a lot of us and we're still far enough behind, evolution-wise, that we can't protect ourselves from their superior technology. 

            How I became involved with this goes something like this: I was walking through the construction site as a shortcut on the way home from the mall with a few friends. An alien gave me the power to morph- to change into animals and fight the Yeerks. I'm already putting you in danger by telling you this much and I can't tell you anything more. I'm sorry.

            I really hope no one in your families is a controller- controllers are people with a Yeerk sharing living quarters with their brain. You cannot mention any of this to anyone anytime at all. Stay away from The Sharing- it's a cover organization to recruit voluntary controllers, voluntary controllers being people who voluntarily accept Yeerk control.

            Faith, tell Chris that Jordan is OK. Tell him you've got a gut feeling, nothing more. Nothing more at all."

Leigh and I stood still, digesting the information. I guess I processed it more quickly than her, because the next thing I knew, words were flying out of my mouth, "I want to help." Leigh stood there dumbfounded.

Marco shook his head. "No. It's too dangerous."

I was determined to help. "Marco. From what I gather, you could be killed, no? Considering you basically turn into animals in order to fight evil body snatching slugs? I'm not gonna stand by and let you be killed. And I'm not going to be uninformed, wondering every day if you're alive. Do you have email/AIM, by any chance? Do you have a computer in your secret hideout?" I asked.

At the words 'secret hideout' he chuckled. "I doubt you could call it a secret hideout, but I do have a computer and email. Do you have a piece of paper?" I nodded and handed him one and he scribbled his address down. It was the address I had guessed. I smiled to myself. 

At this point, Leigh's eyes lost their glazed look. She blinked a few times, coming back into contact with our seemingly unreal reality. "What else can we do?"

"What?" Marco asked.

"What else can we do?" She repeated. "We'll be keeping in touch through emails and IM, but that isn't enough! I want action! I don't want a 'hey, I'm alive' kind of thing. That's not enough. What if there's a time when you're NOT alive? And we didn't do anything to help? I dunno about Faith, but I really could not live with that. I really just could not live with that."

"Me either." I quickly added in.

"Well…" Marco said, seeming to be internally debating, "OK." he said and sighed. "Here's the deal: The majority of our small group fighting the Yeerks are human, and we'll need to contact the outside world from time to time, I guess. The only thing I can think of for you to do is be our contact source. Will that work?"

"Yup… I guess." said Leigh. I nodded. 

"I've gotta go." Marco said. 

"Leigh," I whispered in her ear, "go on ahead. I'll catch up." she nodded and rode off slowly. 

I quickly kissed Marco on the cheek before saying a quick "good-bye," mounting my bike, and racing to catch up with Leigh. I glanced up and saw an osprey overhead. 


	8. Chapter 7

Author's Note: I know, I know, this is a dead fic. This is a very dead fic. But I wanna finish it!  
  
I'm not getting any helpful reviews. Seriously guys, if it's good, it's good. There are some stories that are just that good, and don't really need any help! ::cough Please Forgive Me cough:: If you can't think of anything, that's ok. There are some fics that may still need stuff, but you don't have a clue what they need, or you don't have a clue as to where the author's going. ::cough Sixkiller cough:: I also don't think that this fic could, in any way shape or form, possibly fit either of those categories.  
  
So tell me what's wrong! I mean, aside from the fact that Faith is a total ditz and Leigh is just her really stupid sidekick (Translation: My characters suck. I have a problem with developing characters. This was my first attempt), WHAT IS WRONG? I NEED FEEDBACK! ::pants:: ::regains composure:: So. Here goes.  
  
1 Chapter Seven  
  
Arriving back home, I informed a dubious Chris that Jordan was perfectly fine, or so said my 'gut feeling.' Promptly logging onto AOL, I realized that Marco might not have my email address/screen name. But I guess he remembered it from before, because I had an email from him explaining about kinds of aliens and stuff I'd need to know for the future. I forwarded it to Leigh and replied to Marco, and included Leigh's email address in the response.  
  
Now there was nothing to do but sit back and wait until we were needed.  
  
*********  
  
Author's Note: After writing that lengthy Author's Note. I realized that the story was basically finished. I have one more chapter coming that I think I'll write right now, then wait to upload to see the responses from this chapter. 


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight **

*We had dutifully checked our email every day, waiting until we were needed. We helped find the center to recruit the Auxiliary Animorphs, doing internet searches and getting maps of the town. We were able to help Marco find Erek King, hearing through the grapevine that after his home blew up in the big battles that he went to live with a girl named Jenny, who was our age and really nice. I missed Marco so much, and I knew he missed me. But we survived, and that was the important thing. We survived.*

I arrived home from school and set my backpack down. Walking into the kitchen, I got myself a snack and sat down in the living room. It was three months after the first encounter, from our first Nancy-Drew-escapades. 

Turning on the TV, I was rewarded with Marco speaking into a microphone. The bottom of the TV screen said, "Live from Washington, D.C." The image sent the room spinning. As some newsperson replaced Marco, telling the general public what I'd known for three months but was never able to act on, the phone rang. I jumped three feet in the air, then ran to get it.

"Hello?" I asked, expecting it to be my mother.

"Faith? Faith, it's Leigh. Are you watching TV? Turn on Channel 7." 

"Already have it. Can you believe it?" I asked. Together we watched, still on the phone. I was mesmerized. 

"I think they won." Leigh's voice floated through the phone, strange and distant.

"_We_ won, Leigh. Earth _won_." 

*

Later that night, I was lying on my bed, absorbed in thought, when the phone rang. It took me a moment to realize that mom and Chris were out somewhere, trying to find Jordan most likely, I was home alone, and I'd have to answer the phone. 

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey, Faith?" A familiar voice responded. I hadn't heard it in so so long, too long.  

"Yeah, Marco?" I asked.

"I can't believe we won." He said. 

"Me, either. Is that all?" I asked. "Did you call me just for that?"

"That's all," Marco said. "That's all." A pause, then, "Hey, listen. I was thinking, y'know, maybe we could hang out sometime. I mean, after all the interviews and all."

"So that's not all," I said mischievously. Then, on a more serious note, "Are you sure you're not too busy?" 

"I don't think I am…but hey, the press loves me. I could always _arrange _to have more interviews, if you want." 

"No," I giggled. "We really should hang out though."

"Allright then," He said in his best movie star voice. "I'll have my people call your people and we'll do lunch." 

***The End***

What do you think? It's over. Yay. REVIEW! ::dances:: I finished a fic, I finished a fic, wooee hey hey Momo's good today, I finished a fic! I'm not all that happy with the ending, but oh well… I had more dramatic things planned but what happens, happens. 

If you've read this far, muchas gracias. Thank you very much. I don't know how to say that in French, so, sorry! 

CHALLENGE: Write a fic using the word 'soymilk' at least ten times, in honor of my obsession of chocolate-flavored soymilk. Yum! It must include at least three Animorphs (in this sense, Ax is an Animorph) and… um… someone's gotta kiss someone else. Also, it should be funny. I mean, if you can write a serious fic using 'soymilk' ten times, three Animorphs or more, and a kiss or two, then kudos to you! *stops talking when she realizes no one is listening*


End file.
